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TIL of Dawson disease, a horrific complication of measles (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/todayilearned@lemmy.ml
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Also called Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), it affects like 1 in 5,000 people who contract measles (vaccinated), but jumps to 1 in 609 in the unvaccinated.

Basically, you get measles and then seem fine, but anywhere from months to 15+ years later, you develop brain inflammation, seizures, spasms, blindness, and coma, and it’s basically 100% fatal. The disease attacks your nerves and brain. There’s no treatment or cure, and it hurts the whole time you’re dying. It can take months or more of excruciating suffering to kill you. It’s similar to rabies, in that you lose all control and are guaranteed a protracted, painful death.

It’s preventable by getting the measles vaccine.

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[–] [S] 2 points 10 months ago*

Yes, that’s the point.

Contrary to my sibling’s comment, the point here is that it’s 1 in 5,000 people who get measles despite being vaccinated, which is rather rare. This is why the number jumps so much in the unvaccinated (nothing to do with infants – it’s just that infants are when we normally give this vaccine; the disease usually happens in children and young adults who weren’t vaccinated as infants).

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